Today’s top ten list from the Artsy Reader Girl is one-word titles, so I’m going to look back at the first three years of this blog to check out what I was reading back then. These from 2007 – 2009 with a lot of representation from 2009. But foist, the Tuesday Tease!

“I do so know what’s it’s like.” Harriet was getting tired of standing up and screaming. She wished she could sit down but it wouldn’t have done. It would have looked like giving up.

Harriet the Spy

On the next to last day of the missions, the Soviets shot a laser at Challenger, tracking it. Though it was a low-powered laser, it was still enough to cause a malfunction of onboard equipment and temporarily blind the crew. The US government made a formal diplomatic protest. The message was not a terse as the one I would have sent.

Forever Young: Adventure in Air and Space, John Young

Mephisto, Klaus Mann. The story of an artist whose desire for accolades and wealth leads him to make a deal with the Devil — the Nazi party. I re-read this in 2021 for the Classics Club. That title links to my re-read of it, since back when I originally read Mephisto I was doing once-a-week walls of text that (frankly) were so devoid of personality I don’t re-read them.

Foundation, Isaac Asimov. A collection of the first five Foundation stories, which would lead to my reading literally anything by Asimov I could find. He remains, years after I exhausted my access to his works, the author I’ve read the most of, with close to a hundred. Bernard Cornwell is runner-up with 50+ odd titles.

Pompeii, Robert Harris. A novel of the eruption of Mt Vesuvius and the towns it destroyed. One of my first Harris reads that made me realize how strong his historical fiction chops were. (My first-first read by him was Fatherland, but that was more of a mystery set in an alt-history world.)

Syrup, Max Barry. One of several of his anti-corporate satires I read, this one about the marketing of a controversial soda; a similar title was Company. I’d like to go back and re-read these to see how my perspective has changed. Interestingly, Barry himself has changed: instead of satires, his last four titles (beginning with Machine Man) have all been solidly SF.

Rubicon, Tom Holland. A history of the fall of the Roman Republic. I still prefer his Persian Fire for introducing me to Persia, Zoroastrianism, etc, but I’ve remained a fan of his over the years and am currently enjoying his podcast.

Christine, Stephen King. My first proper horror novel by Stephen King, since the previous ones were more fantasy & science fiction.

Citizens, Simon Schama. A sweeping history of the French revolution and the gorefest which followed. It was my introduction to the French revolution proper, and one that made me realize that historical events can be very complicated.

Stiff, Mary Roach. On the many uses of corpses. Roach is known for one-word titles, having followed this with Spook, Bonk, Guts, and Fuzz. (These concern ghosts, sex, …guts, and animal violations of human law.)

Contact, Carl Sagan. An astronomer’s take on what a real encounter with extraterrestials might look like.

Timeline, Michael Crichton. Possibly my first Crichton, an interesting mix of SF and historical fiction, in which some student-researchers explore medieval France.